56 Things to Declutter in Your House
I think I was going to lose my mind. 🤯 The constant clutter, constantly putting things away, cleaning up etc. was driving me insane. I get an actual physical reaction of stress and anxiety when I look around and see crap everywhere. The kitchen counter gets cluttered, the desk gets cluttered, the girls dreaded cleaning up… I finally had enough.
We don’t live in a large space. Our home is about 1200 square ft. (I think) not including the garage (pretty sure). I didn’t feel like we had tons of stuff and everything has a home but we must have too much if this is how I feel. I do not enjoy managing a home—cleaning, maintaining etc. It is so much work and it is not worth my time. I’d rather do other things than clean and maintain my house so I need to get rid of unnecessary chores, maintenance, and stuff.
I feel like I’ve worked on living a minimized, simple life since my oldest daughter was born. It’s been about five years, so how does this happen?? Life happens, I guess. Interests change, stuff accumulates. Luckily I know how to get out of it so I started by writing down a list of my family’s priorities.
My family’s priorities are to own less stuff. Clean up time was a nightmare with my kids. They loved to play and make giant messes. I love that they are being creative and having fun but when it came time to put things aways, they cried and argued and it was awful for everyone involved.
I want to have more experiences. I want to go places and have new experiences while coming home to a neat, cozy house. I do not want to spend weekends cleaning or worrying about what I need to do at home.
I value spending time with family and doing things all together. I want to be present and in the moment instead of constantly saying, “hold on, I have to do (fill in the blank with an annoying chore).”
I want to be outside more and explore what’s around me. There are so many trails and lakes around us that we have not gone to.
I really believe that my things and all the responsibilities are weighing me down and preventing me from doing other, more meaningful activities. I cannot do it any more. I won’t.
So I’m using my list to help me make decisions and getting rid of everything I possibly can so I can be less stressed and happier. 🤗
56 THINGS TO DECLUTTER IN YOUR HOUSE
LIVING ROOM
books
I had a bunch of chapter books from when I was teaching. Since my kids are little, I figured it would be a decade before they could read them. They may not even be interested in them by then so no point in holding on to them.
baskets
I love baskets for organizing but by now I have figured out which ones are my favorite.
picture Frames
I had empty frames hanging on the wall for years. I finally put pictures in them. No one hardly looked at them and they were a lot of maintenance. They collect a lot of dust and they always need to be fixed straight.
wall art
I want to love art but I have a hard time committing to pieces of art. So most of mine were thrifted because it was a small investment. However, they become a lot of work to keep dusted and hanging straight.
blankets
couch pillows
Feather pillows… enough said. bye 👋🏻
rugs
Rugs need a lot of upkeep because they attract a lot of hair, dirt, dust etc. Plus I got tired of moving furniture to vacuum them. We’ll only have one rug in the living room when I find the right one.
furniture
There is no rule that you need end tables and a coffee table. I don’t have them! I hated moving them around to clean.
DVDs
I had so many DVDs but I rarely watched them. I mostly stream if I want to watch anything.
CDs
lightbulbs
cords
electronics
shelving
Gallery ledges are my favorite because you can move frames around. With not as much wall decor we didn’t need some of our gallery ledges anymore.
plants
I am no longer a plant mom. We have terrible lighting in our house. The water kept going hydrophobic no matter how many times I changed the soil. The foliage kept turning yellow. I used to spend forever turning over the dirt with a spoon so the dirt would soak up the water and then one day I was like, “What am I doing?” It wasn’t worth it, so I sold every. single. plant. 😵
PETS
dog toys
dog accessories
dog brush
Our dog has short hair and we rarely brushed her anyways. Bye brush. 👋🏻
MISCELLANEOUS
These items secretly trickle in through packaging, giveaways, gifts etc. Most of what I kept went into my daughter’s pencil box and the rest I donated.
pencils
pens
rubberbands
paperclips
safety pins
erasers
KITCHEN
drain stoppers
They came with the house and I just kept them for no reason. 🤷🏻♀️
drain strainers
kitchen gadgets
We don’t have too many gadgets but I did get rid of our apple cutter. A knife does the same thing.
kitchen utensils
appliances
old spices
old food
old baking ingredients
baking sheets
cake decorating accessories
We had some edible googly eyes and edible drawing pens but haven’t used them since they were given to us so I let them go.
expired coupons/gift cards
storage containers
BATHROOM
hair accessories
Not sure why I had bobby pins, I never used them.
unused sample toothpaste
The girls don’t like the sample toothpaste from the dentist. For some reason I kept it incase they changed their mind. Weird I know. I just threw it away.
skincare products
hair care products
makeup
nail polish
I started using gel nail polish so I got rid of any nail polish that was not gel. Plus it was all old anyways.
clothes steamer
I don’t know why my steamer stopped working but I used to steam clothes before I sold them on Poshmark. Now I just wash them and air dry. I may have to wait longer to list items but I don’t care.
clothing depiller
I used this for reselling clothing on Poshmark. Now I don’t even bother trying to fix up clothing to resell. I don’t have the time.
KIDS
clothing
I created capsule wardrobes for both my girls. Anything that gets damaged goes away immediately.
stuffed animals
I overbought Care Bears from the thrift store…oops! They are so fun but it was too much. I sold some and kept the faves.
dress up dresses
We love dress up dresses and I have a favorite brand. Anything that was damaged I got rid of. If it wasn’t a favorite I sold it.
toys
books
shoes
knick knacks
board games
My girls only play two games–Chutes and Ladders and Candyland. I sold the rest including puzzles.
dolls
I love American Girl dolls and I would find them at the thrift store; however, I found too many and it was ridiculous so I sold some.
doll accessories
We had an entire basket dedicated to doll accessories. They only play with a certain few–the baby bottles and brushes. Everything else I donated.
bedding
wall art
electronics
I always come back to the scripture Matthew 6:21 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. My stuff cannot be taken with me when I die and it has no real, lasting value. I mean, everything depreciates the second you buy it anyways. I am valuable and so is my family, friends, and people. My stuff takes away from that ‘cause I’m too busy picking it up all the time. 🤪
Actually, this just made me think of something my friend told her daughter when I was visiting and her daughter wanted to watch t.v. She told her daughter, “We care about people not things.” That has always stuck with me. ❤️
xo L.
